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The Privacy Tablet -- from Google!

By Dennis E. Powell | Nov 30, 2023 at 1:04 AM

Thanks, Google! You have struck a blow for privacy! Okay, that overstates things slightly, but only slightly. And while the Google Pixel Tablet is anything but private as shipped, the enormous, generally evil company (who knows that you are looking at this article unless you did something to prevent tracking, which you probably didn’t) left the tablet open so people concerned with privacy and security can fix it.

A Cloud of One's Own

By Timothy R. Butler | Nov 28, 2023 at 11:42 PM

I’ve been spoiled by the cloud. A decade and a half after I first used Dropbox, and years after iCloud made the dream of secure, seamless “login and forget” cloud sync a reality (most of the time), it seems obvious that all of my stuff should be available from every device I have whenever I need it. But what about content too big to keep on the cloud?

Amplifying the Craft, Not Short-circuiting It

By Timothy R. Butler | Sep 06, 2023 at 9:47 PM

In a recent column for Christianity Today, Yi-Li Lin argued for a significant increase in usage of AI-related tools in church work. I’m sympathetic, but he goes too far. The ways he does are revealing to the challenges every profession is facing, or will face, with this technology.

We're Regulating the Wrong Thing

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 23, 2023 at 8:48 PM

Standardization is a good thing. Forced standarization can appear beneficial, too. But the two are not the equivalent. Consider the increasingly ubiquitous USB Type-C cable.

T-Mobile's Hard Work to Lose a Customer

By Timothy R. Butler | Aug 09, 2023 at 12:17 PM

T-Mobile managed to do what a massive rebrand and years of advertising couldn’t do. They’ve managed to make the thought of dealing with my cable company, Spectrum, seem appealing.

X Doesn't Mark the Spot

By Timothy R. Butler | Jul 26, 2023 at 9:42 PM

Twitter has changed its name to “X.” The way that change reverberated from newsrooms to dining rooms was revealing. It shows how dangerously dependent our society has become on this one, privately owned soapbox.

Maybe This Is the One

By Dennis E. Powell | Jul 19, 2023 at 9:08 PM

We do so much online now. Unless we very much limit our internet activities, we make ourselves vulnerable to crooks so clever that they would have gotten rich if they were honest. But for whatever reason they aren’t honest, so we need to take precautions. If we don’t, given the portion of our lives that takes place online, we face catastrophes not far in effect from the house burning down.

A Threads I Can Follow

By Timothy R. Butler | Jul 05, 2023 at 11:08 PM

Meta has launched another social network, “Threads.” I signed up but already knew when I did that I wouldn’t be an active user. I hope many others will join me in not using it. I also hope it succeeds for the good of the Internet.

If WWDC23 Had Steve Jobs Instead of a Vision Pro

By Timothy R. Butler | Jun 12, 2023 at 9:30 AM

Last week, I grumbled about Apple’s “vision” which is visionless at worst and horribly dystopian at best. What could have been different? I found myself imagining what WWDC23’s big announcement might have been if Steve Jobs were still living.

Some Visions Aren't Worth Having

By Timothy R. Butler | Jun 07, 2023 at 10:20 PM

I watch Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote every year like people watch the Superbowl — snacks, celebratory anticipation, the works. The greatest ones over the years remain memorable long after, conveying master showmanship and a clarity of vision for technology that makes life better. Ironically, while introducing a device called Vision Pro, this year’s conference felt like an aimless stumble towards dystopia.

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